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Pakistani astronaut will become first foreign national to enter Chinese space station 
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A Pakistani astronaut will become the first foreign national aboard China’s Tiangong space station, as Beijing steps up space diplomacy amid a burgeoning battle with the United States for supremacy in orbit.

The mission of the Pakistani astronaut – who is yet to be selected – tightens already close space ties between Beijing and Islamabad. Last year, Pakistan sent a satellite to the Moon aboard China’s lunar explorer, alongside payloads from the European Space Agency, France, and Italy, according to Chinese state media.

Tiangong is one of two currently operating space stations, alongside the International Space Station, launched in 1998. Since it started operating in 2021, it has only hosted Chinese astronauts.

The mission is “a significant step in the internationalization of the Chinese space station,” said Quentin Parker, an astrophysicist and professor at the University of Hong Kong.

“When you internationalize things properly, you build something greater than the sum of the parts, and that’s true in the internationalization of the space station,” he said.

During a press conference on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency announced the astronaut selected will be a payload specialist, handling daily tasks during the mission, as well as scientific experiments for Pakistan.

Amjad Ali, deputy director of Pakistan’s space agency SUPARCO, lauded the news as a milestone for the South Asian nation, whose government is taking a renewed interest in its more than 60-year-old space program.

“It is very important for Pakistan, being the first foreign country whose astronauts are entertained by China and taken by the Chinese mission,” he told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Ali said Pakistan space bosses will compile a list of five to 10 candidates for the mission over the next month, for China to then shorten to two.

The pair will then go through training in China for six months to a year, with one eventually being sent to space as early as October next year, while the other acts as a reserve, Ali said.

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